hello korea!

i'm so glad my photos are finally organised and i can share this eye-opening experience with you all! 

back in august of this year, i made my first mark on korea after signing up to teach english there for a month. i knew no one, knew nothing much about the trip (in fact, my mum was worried i might get deported), and i did not know an ounce of korean except hello and thank you.

saying bye to my dad and sister!

as exciting as this was, there was a mini cloud over me holding my worries and fears. but all that was gone the moment i met part of the team at heathrow airport.

we were a good mix of uni students in second year, third year and some graduated; it turned out too that i was the youngest among us all! we entertained ourselves for a bit looking for our departure gates, grabbing food and pondering what the next few weeks would be like.

leaving the uk

first glimpse of south korea

it has been a good 8 years since i've been on such a long-haul flight, and i admit i was pretty well prepared for it (thank you pinterest). plane food wasn't as bad as i remembered it to be, and their makeshift bibimbap rice bowls weren't even that bad tasting. i also managed to get a good morning grind moving, watching zootopia during breakfast before we landed. 

once we landed, we were introduced to the team that flew over from america that same day. i grabbed a quick taro bubble tea (i mean, first things first) - before we got a taste of the humidity and heat outside when we boarded our coach to the city of danjin.

after a 2 hour drive, we saw the massive church we will be based in for the duration of our trip, which claims to hold 1000 people for services. we had a quick orientation where we tried to combat our jetlag, before being introduced to our homestays who will be looking after us. 

i was put into pairs with a korean girl, also from the uk, who was particularly helpful in translating between me and our host family who only knew limited english. our family consisted of 2 girls and a little boy who was very shy with us at first. they were the most welcoming and cheerful family too.

they took us out for dinner to an italian-korean fusion restaurant where we munched and got to know each other. it was an early night for us that evening despite how humid it was in the apartment even with the fan on!

church started off with 5am services, but we attended the one at 11am after a cute breakfast consisting of fresh goods from the bakery down the road and a strong coffee.

the big church.

 their services were so different to what i'm used to back in the uk. the children were so enthusiastic with their praises, and their prayers were filled with so much passion. we got a chance to introduce ourselves to the thousand people at the church too - a bit of daunting experience if you ask me. 

after church, i went exploring with my roommate, hadarm. the heat really got to us so we sat down to enjoy some bingsu, which eventually became a frequent dessert for us as it was so hot. 

we popped back to church for their evening service at 7pm before heading home for dinner.

dinner was beautifully laid out (and tasted great!) and afterwards we popped down to the corner shop to get some of the most funkiest ice creams for dessert.

i already know this will be the most yummiest trip yet.

summer food travelling.

ikea dates with loklok

shibuya in soho after church - shaved ice

the great summer barbecue

doing smores the right way.

grilling them marshes

homemade egg tarts which disappeared within minutes

the most expensive and standard popcorn you could buy at the cinema.

-wa-ha-ca-

after church on a sunday we always have difficulty deciding where to go for dinner. on this particular day, we walked into wahaca for some delicious mexican street food.

i absolutely love the way wahaca designs all its restaurants - all of them have such funky lighting and wall murals. i remember the first time i went was with kelly after a photoshoot two years ago. the moment i stepped in, the word 'instagram' was all i could think of.

loksze and i ordered a set meal to share - and wow did it fill us up. wahaca brands itself almost as mexican snacks so unless you get a burrito with some sides, you can't really make a full dinner out of it without paying a bit more.

nonetheless, it was a good time chilling with all our church friends in a relaxed atmosphere, though some of us ended up going to mcdonalds later for a touch up.

we passed this cool set up in waterloo on the way home. and if you pass waterloo regularly, you would realise that this prop has long been set up and taken down, and that my posts are in fact incredibly behind schedule (no shame, my summer has been incredibly fun-packed!)

the fantastic four.

when it comes to describing our friendship, 'the fantastic four' might just be the perfect phrase.

we are so brilliantly different making us compatible and a joy to be around each other. i'm just so looking forward to growing up with these guys and still meeting up like this even after 10 years.

it's always difficult finding a convenient time for us to meet as we go to different uni's and have different holidays. being back home for the summer also means you have a tonne of people to catch up with, friends and family to see. despite all that, we persisted and finally found a day to have lunch together. etain and i met the boys after doing a spot of shopping on oxford street and we all ate bibimbaps (korean rice) in the blazing heat.

back in the days, the four of us would always be jamming in hyde park with our skateboards and enjoy the park life, and so we decided to bring it back. this time with bikes. 

eug, being a grown man of 19, still does not know how to ride a bike (embarrassing right), and so we took him on a spin on the borris bikes.

unfortunately due to the popularity of the bikes, we only managed to get two of them. we took turns and nevertheless had so much fun! once eug got the hang of it, he was speeding around in no time!

feeling the sweats, we decided to chill at a cafe by the restaurant. being london, the food and drinks were so overpriced we just decided to sit there and spill our tough jokes at each other.

etain and i, being britain's next top model made the boys take some 'candid' shots for us. not bad right - at least they're instagram-able!

^ aesthetically pleasing details.

does it appear to you that this lad here is having a good time chilling with his beer? look carefully cos he's holding a bottle of malt vinegar.

as it was monday, lok sze had to be home for dinner with his family. he happily invited us however and as etain and i went to play with his new kitten, he and eug proceeded to play fifa.










what a happy day God has blessed us with!